Chimera Illusions
by HippiestHop
Summary: Ed and Al are 2nd year Ravenclaws in Lupin's boggart class. Luna's POV.


"Brother, I'm scared."

Luna looked over at the two, the suit of armor and the boy smaller than her. It was tragically unfortunate that Cornelius had set his umgubular slashkilter on someone so young. To not be able to grow taller than 155 centimeters was truly a sad fate.

"We'll be fine, Al," the shorter Elric snapped, "It's just some stupid 'magic' thing. It can't really hurt us."

Up at the front of the line, a shaky call of "_Ri-riddikulus!" _was heard.

Luna slowly turned around to face the two at the back of the line. "That's right," she responded dreamily. Another person successfully fought off the boggart and they took a few steps forward. She noted absentmindedly that only five people were left in front of her. "It's really just a defense against things that want to steal their eggs. That's their true form, you know. A small bird."

The smaller one, she was pretty sure his name was Edward, looked at her incredulously. Oh, well. Someone so hostile wouldn't have gotten along with her very well anyway. The suit of armor, however, seemed more open to the idea. Four people left

"Is it really?" Alphonse murmured curiously before turning excitedly to his brother. "Brother! Do you think that boggarts are really homunculus parakeets? That guy back in Lior kept 'bringing them back to life', so maybe all of those turned into boggarts! They're like Envy!"

"Al!" Three people to go. "Be quiet! Anyone could have heard you, and what then, huh? We'd have to leave have to leave again, and the library in this place has the most potential yet. You do want to get back, don't you?"

They really did belong in Ravenclaw, Luna mused, stepping forward again. Only two more people waiting to repel the boggart before it was supposed to be her turn. The small one was loud enough by far to get by in Gryffindor, and Alphonse was Hufflepuff material if she'd ever seen any, but it seemed their only reason for being here was the library. Even her father wasn't that dedicated to finding the truth. Maybe they'd agree to write an article for_ The Quibbler_.

Alphonse looked down, subdued, before lifting his head again to glare at his brother. "If we're staying here for so long, why couldn't I get a cat? Mr. Hagrid said that we could get a pet if we wanted one, so why didn't you let me? The orange and brown one seemed really nice!"

The older Elric's face crumpled slightly, and he hesitated a moment before answering, "We would just have to leave it again, you know. Besides, we don't have enough money to care for a chaotic little fur ball right now. We're in debt to the school as it is!"

One person left. Time for her to go. It was lucky for her that wrackspurts had gotten to the two, otherwise they might have noticed her leaving. It wouldn't have helped anyone to make a scene. Besides, Luna doubted anyone would like her boggart anyway.

She stood by Professor Lupin quietly. It really was too bad that he would have to leave at the end of the year. He was a much better teacher than Professor Lockhart had been, even if he was one of the supposedly dark beings he was instructing them to fight. It was a shame that some creatures were so misunderstood.

After a few seconds he noticed her, and nearly missed the vampire rabbit the boggart had changed into when he turned to face her. Some people's fears were so silly. Everyone knew it was muskrats that could become vampires, not rabbits.

"Luna?" the werewolf questioned carefully. "Why aren't you in line?"

She smiled dreamily up at him. If Luna could have one wish, it would be that everyone understood things as well as she did so that she wouldn't have to spell everything out. Then again, that would make it harder to get what she wanted. Oh well, one couldn't have everything. "The creatures pulling the carriages really are quite darkly beautiful, aren't they Professor? The bones in their wings run parallel to their ribs, and the hooves are much more graceful than a normal horse's."

It was Edwards turn now. Professor Lupin paled slightly when he realized what she was getting at and nodded slightly to signal that she didn't have to go before returning his attention to the shifting boggart. Luna did the same. She was sure that the new students' fears would be much more reasonable than everyone else's.

Soon the boggart decided on a young blonde boy. That in itself was strange, but in addition there were more than a few very furry cats hanging off the child. "Hey, brother!" the boy shouted with glee, and Luna was slightly surprised that it had nearly the same voice as Alphonse, just without an echo.

The blood had drained out of Edwards face and his wand fell to the stone floor with a click. "Al?" he asked, "is that really you?" The older brother glanced between the suit of armor and what Luna assumed was a younger version of Alphonse frantically, obviously not sure what to do. Even though a suit of armor couldn't show any expression, Alphonse seemed just as confused as his brother.

"Brother?" The boggart sounded scared now, and blue sparks started dancing around its form. "No, stop it brother!" it screamed before being blocked from view by the startling blue light.

"Elric, pick up your wand," Professor Lupin shouted, looking even more tired than usual. It was no good, however. Luna was fairly certain that the older Elric had completely forgotten what he was supposed to be doing.

The light around the boggart faded, allowing Luna to see what the younger version of Alphonse had turned into. It was down on its hands and feet now, except its limbs had morphed so that it was more of a quadruped. It had patches of dark grey fur covering most of its body, with slightly longer yellow fur covering the top of its head and neck. The ears were slightly sharper, and the jaw was more human than cat. "Brother," it moaned, and Luna winced at its distorted voice. "how could you?"

Edward was as white as snow by now, and shaking like he had been in a freezer for a month. "Al?" he called out, his voice quaking and tears glistening in his eyes. Suddenly the boy ran at the cat-human mix and fell at its feet, clutching the hand like paws as if his life depended on it. "Stay with me, Al. I'll find a way to change you back, I promise!"

Luna noticed with a hint of compassion that he was crying, silent droplets streaming down his face and leaving glistening streaks on his skin. The begging towards the apathetic boggart continued for a time until the face of the cat-human took on a pained frown. Eventually, it growled, "I want to die."

Everyone in the room froze. Edward was the first to snap out of it, shouting denial and reaching up to the thing's head. Just as his fingers made contact, however, red sparks twined around his hand before rushing into the being's face. Almost immediately the back of its skull blew open and a bloody mess splattered the floor behind it.

Professor Lupin lunged in between the sobbing boy and bloody carcass, and soon the body became a glowing full moon. The adult snapped out a _riddikulus_, turning the floating orb into a squeaking balloon before banishing it back into the wardrobe.

Luna turned back to the miserable brother and saw that Alphonse was kneeling at his side, comforting the wailing boy. Saying things like, "That wasn't me," and, "It wasn't your fault." She herself had never been good at things like that. After all, how was one supposed to make another feel better without knowing the exact details of what had happened? And what if it actually _had_ been their fault? She wasn't going to lie and say that it wasn't.

Professor Lupin straightened a little shakily before barking out, "Class dismissed." Luna thought that was a little harsh, considering the rest of the class had probably just been traumatized. And to think he had believed werewolves to be immune to wrackspurts.

Luna walked softly up to the brothers, reminding herself that they were new and it didn't look like anyone else was thinking that they didn't know where their next class was. She felt a bit uncomfortable, intruding on their moment, but she didn't know if they would be angry if they missed the next class. "Do you need to go to the hospital wing?" she asked mistily, startling the pair.

Alphonse looked down at his brother wiping his puffy, red eyes before answering kindly, "We know the way, thank you."

Luna just nodded and started out the door, taking one last look at the two before continuing to the next class, wondering if they would see her again soon. Alphonse seemed nice enough to be her friend.

Then again, the two depended on each other more than she could imagine. Not to mention the elder one would probably keep Alphonse too busy to notice an air headed girl like her. That was alright, though. It was clear Edward cared more for his brother than Luna ever could.

"Brother, you were right. I-, I don't need a pet. We would just leave it here anyway."

* * *

><p>1,586 words. Updated January 27, 2012.<p>

This felt a little... distracted. Yeah. In short, I don't think it's one of my best works, but it's original. If you want to use the idea, feel free. You can even use whole chunks of it if you want, I don't care. As for why I used Luna, who knows. She just felt right.

I'm open to title suggestions. The one I have now just doesn't fit.


End file.
